5 Answers

It would be much easier to pull the radio fuse. If thats whats draining the battery. If that is not the problem put an ammeter in series on your neg. bat wire with the car off. It should be a low number.( i don't know exactly how low but maybe around .5 amps) If the number is high start pulling fuses to determine what circuit the drain is comming from.

75% of the time nothing is draining your battery at all, you often think something is and its not. Either your battery is dying on its own or your alternator isnt charging right, also i had a ford explorer in the same situation i thought something was draining the battery and nothing was, it was the terminal and cable wires that were shot although it has been in some water, check your terminal and cable wires for corrosion that sometimes would cause your battery to lose power.

You haven't told us much really...Is it draining or simply down on capacity...that's our question. Is your alarm working? electronic fault there could be a drain overnight. A battery with say 360cca should not significantly discharge with an intermittent cd player unless the player has other faults or is activating some monster amplifier in the boot...and if you have a cd cassette in the boot, disconnect it too. There are three main causes of apparent discharge fault ..., a load which shouldn't be there through fault or carelessness, a crook battery, or a crook charging circuit. The last one includes not unusual problems with Calcium Batteries but might also be a sulphated or plate shorted or otherwise kaput lead acid battery. The latter may include regulator or other issues at alternator, crook diode/s, as others have mentioned, poor or incomplete earthing at charging circuit, dirty or corroded terminals, high resistances in the various charging cct connections....and the resistance doesn't have to be numerically high...just high enough to limit charging rate. Occasionally faults come up in the charge indicator cct. As for the first as Mark says it's a good idea to isolate and find the load which is pulling down the battery voltage. Obviously your CD player needs repair. I don't like constantly pulling fuses...easier to disconnect one leg of battery or put a marine style switch in there if taking that course. Some appalling people still have those brain beating high powered amplifiers and if you are one that will be loading up the battery and short runs don't charge a battery well. Of course there are other things such as trailer/caravan lights depending on your car use. So...have the battery load tested electronically or preferably carbon-pile, if calcium it may not be getting enough charge anyway but have it run up of a proper charger for calcium and then load tested. If crook replace battery. Get rid of the CD player or have it fixed..in the meantime disconnect it or remove the radio fuse once after a good run or charging the battery and see what happens over a few days parking or...as Mark suggests have an ammeter put in line and see what standing current draw is being taken. Two other thoughts, if the car is taking lengthy starting times that will put a heavy load on battery which short runs will not recover (you can see charging rate on indicator 'info' panel but proper tests are done at alternator and battery and between them. Mark's advice on corrosion losing power isn't quite explanatory....corroded terminals may stop adequate charging in the first place as well as providing resistance to what is taken from the battery. In closing one of the worst faults my 9000 Carlsson had was stopping dead at night when I turned on the lights. SAAB couldn't fix it ($180 down the drain) the problem I diagnosed eventually was a faulty light switch! If your 9000 is trionic it may have by the way the permanently 'on' driving light arrangement If you have ignition 'on' whilst listening to the CD whilst car is stopped your load will be greater than just the CD player. An auto electrician will go straight to load test battery and then charging voltage at terminals and then stationary load with ign'off'...a systematic checking has to be done or one may go around in circles.

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